Silent march for French teenager killed by police amid political and racial tensions in the country

P.A.

Updated June 29, 2024, 04:57 PM IST

A year after a French teenager of North African origin was killed by police – a shooting that sparked shock and days of rioting across France – his mother leads a silent march on Saturday to pay tribute to his son.

Nahel Merzouk, 17, shot at close range by a police officer during a traffic stop on June 27, 2023 (Photo: AP)

Nanterre: A year after a French teenager of Maghreb origin was kill by police — a shooting that sparked shock and days of riots across France – her mother leads a silent walk Saturday to pay tribute to his son.

The announcement comes at a politically charged moment. Hate speech is marring the campaign for snap parliamentary elections this weekend, and an anti-immigration party that wants to strengthen police gun powers and has historical links to racism and anti-Semitism is leading the polls.

Family members and friends gather in Nanterre, a Paris suburb, to pay tribute to a 17-year-old boy. Nahel Merzoukshot at point-blank range by a police officer during a traffic stop on June 27, 2023. Hours after his death, Merzouk, a delivery driver from a working-class neighborhood, became a symbol. For many across France, he embodied young black and North African French men who, according to studies, face police checks and discrimination more frequently than their white counterparts.

“United in our quest for justice and truth. Nahel will not be forgotten. The fight will resonate through our steps and our voices,” Nahel’s relatives said in an Instagram post. Only his mother Mounia and close friends are expected to speak publicly at the march, and they want to avoid any political spin or tension ahead of France’s legislative elections.

French voters will go to the polls on Sunday for the first round of snap elections to the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, that could lead to the country’s first far-right government since the Nazi occupation of World War II.

French opinion polls suggest that the National Rally could dominate the next parliament after the second round on July 7 and secure the post of prime minister. In this scenario, centrist President Emmanuel Macron would retain the presidency until 2027, but in a significantly weakened role.

“This march, which is taking place now, is a powerful symbol,” said Assa Traoré, who has been fighting for justice since her brother Adama was killed in French police custody in 2016.

“This means that history cannot be written without us. We, from working-class neighborhoods, are the first victims of these elections. We understood very early on that the National Rally and the far-right parties were a danger to our country and were going to weaken it,” said this 39-year-old man of Malian origin who will march alongside Merzouk’s family.

Merzouk’s death, which was filmed, has stoked long-standing tensions between the police and young people from deprived cities and suburbs, many of whom are young people born in France and from immigrant families. Fueled by TikTok, the riots spread with unprecedented speed before a massive police crackdown. The unrest caused, according to French authorities, more than a billion dollars in damage.

The officer who fired the shot claimed self-defense, and a far-right figure launched a crowdfunding campaign for the cop, which raised $1.6 million before being shut down.

Citing security problems, particularly in cities and other poor neighborhoods in French suburbs, the far-right National Rally wants to give a new specific legal status to the police. If the police use their weapons during an intervention, they would be presumed to have acted in self-defense. Currently, police officers have the same legal status as all French citizens and must prove that they acted in self-defense.

The left-wing New Popular Front coalition wants to ban the use of certain police weapons and dismantle a notoriously tough police unit.

“People are afraid of the victory of the National Rally. But we, the people of working-class neighborhoods, are afraid every day that our sons, our brothers or our husbands will be killed. Racism and racial profiling are our daily lives,” Traoré said.